Not applicable.
Not applicable.
The present invention relates to a device and method for loading a feeder of a letter sorting system, the device having a mail singling or isolating device, a horizontally oriented mail conveyor line connected thereto having a supporting wall for the transport of edgewise standing flat mail pieces to the letter sorting system, and a separating knife swiveling in and out and in transport direction for the support and transport of mail pieces to the letter sorting system, traveling and reversing again along linear guides.
Current method of loading the feeder are mainly elaborate and manual. The mail pieces are dumped from a mail container to the mail conveyor line or manually placed stackwise from the mail container and placed on the mail conveyor line. Next, they are manually moved to the mail singling device. Here, the remaining stack is orientated on its lower edge and laterally stands against the supporting wall. The separating knife is then swiveled in behind the stack and the mail singling device starts. The separating knife and in addition, the optional mail conveyor line designed as driven conveying belt coupled with the separating knife, control feeds the stack under a select stack-pressure to the mail singling device.
A device for the automatic loading of the feeder of a letter sorting system (EP 0 865 328 B1) is known where the direct loading process takes place without manual operations. A loaded container is thereby emptied by a loading module onto the mail conveyor line of the feeder between two additional, traveling and swiveling separating knives. The stack is then automatically shifted in a direction of the mail singling devic to the remaining stack, by the two separating knives, the separating knife supporting the remaining stack swivels out, advances closely behind the rear additional separating knife, swivels in again and the two additional separating knives swivel out and advance to the back for the acceptance of a new stack. With this solution, the mail pieces get to the feeder in a mail container, i.e. the mail pieces have to be loaded into the mail containers relatively elaborately. In many cases these mail pieces arrive from preliminary sorting machines. The pre-sorted mail pieces are then loaded from the respective sorting bins into the mail container and, as described, transported to the respective feeder.
There are also sorting processes with several successive sorting runs, where the mail pieces are not loaded from the sorting bins into the mail containers, but moved over a transfer bridge from the sorting bins on the mail conveyor line of the feeder (DE 42 36 507 C1). A certain machine-layout is necessary for this, where the sorting bins and the mail conveyor line of the feeder are opposed.
The present invention is based on the task of creating a device and method for loading the feeder of a letter sorting system with edgewise standing flat mail pieces, with which support the loading of the mail pieces from preliminary letter sorting systems into mail containers is no longer necessary or no requirements regarding the spatial arrangement of feeder and sorting bins are necessary for machine-layouts with sorting processes of several sorting runs, whereby the respective sorted mail pieces of the feeder are directly fed again without the mail container.
By using at least one stack receiver located on a chassis, which is loadable at any location and upon which base the mail stack is traveling beyond the chassis horizontally in direction stack, whereby the mail stack is supported by one or two separating knives sliding along the stack base, it is possible to avoid the loading of the mail stack into mail containers. The stack receiver is designed like the mail conveyor line with a supporting wall, whereby it is not traveling like the base of the stack. The stack receiver is advanced to the mail conveyor line of the feeder in such a way that it forms a quasi extension. Afterwards, the base of the stack is moved on the mail conveyor line up to its stack knives, for example along telescopic tracks or with the support of wheel or rolls, which run on the mail conveyor line and the new mail stack is moved to the remaining stack located still on the mail conveyor line or, if the mail conveyor line is already empty, to the mail singling device with the separating knife (knives) of the stack receiver. After the swiveling out of the separating knife of the mail conveyor line, advancing behind the stack which is located on the base of the stack, swiveling into the stack receiver and swiveling out of the separating knife (knives) of the stack receiver, there is a uniform mail stack in front of the mail singling device. The base of the stack is now withdrawn under the mail pieces and the stack stands directly on the mail conveyor line and can be moved to the mail singling device during the singularization, separation, or isolation (terms to be used interchanably throughout).
For conditions as most uniform as possible during the withdrawal of the mail pieces, the separating knife of the mail conveyor line is advantageously traveling by a traveling device in a direction of the mail singling device. This keeps the measured stack pressure upon the mail singling device at a substantially controlled constant. To gently carry out the transport of the mail pieces, it is advantageous, to realize the mail conveyor line as a conveying belt which moves in sync with a separating knife during the procedure from the mail stack to the mail singling device.
To create the transport of the mail pieces from the stack receiver on the mail line gently for the mail pieces and to prevent a sliding away of the mail pieces standing on a smooth surface during the loading of the stack receiver, the base of the stack receiver is advantageously designed as a conveying belt with a rough surface moveable only in the direction of the mail singling device.
If the mail pieces are stacked against the front separating knife, in the direction of the mail singling device, they don""t slide away because of the rough ground and the blocked reversing motions of the conveying belt. On the other hand, the mail pieces are not moved over the rough ground during the unloading on the mail conveyor line, because the loaded ground surface remains quasi locally immobile during the withdrawal of the moveable part of the stack receiver.
It is also advantageous to advance the stack receiver(s) to the sorting bins of any letter sorting system and to load it from the sorting bins. These are advantageously the sorting bins of the letter sorting system at a sorting process with several sorting runs, which feeder has to be loaded several times.
The present invention further relates to a device for loading of a feeder of a letter sorting system, comprising: a mail singling device, a horizontally directed mail conveyor line with a supporting wall for transport of edgewise standing, flat mail pieces to the mail singling device, and a separating knife swiveling in and out of the transport direction for the support and transport of mail pieces to the mail singling device traveling and reversing again along linear guides, wherein at least a stack receiver located on a chassis, picking up the mail stack at any location with a stack base horizontally moveable in stack direction, beyond the chassis, one or two separating knives supporting the stack, moveable along the stack base and swiveling in and out of the stack receiver and an additional supporting wall, whereby the dimensions and the height of the stack receiver are designed in such a way that the stack base is moveable with the separating knife to the stack receiver on the stack conveyor line to the separating knife of the feeder and that in the following, after the separating knife of the feeder has swiveled out, moved and swiveled in again behind the mail stack located on the stack base, and that the separating knives of the stack receiver are swiveled out, the stack base can be withdrawn under the mail pieces from the area of the mail conveyor line and is moveable into the loading position with the separating knives of the stack receiver.